Coupons needed

We, the Couponeers, are disappointed, as will be the U.S. Navy and Marine families to whom we send coupons this holiday season.

This year, there are fewer and fewer coupons in the newspaper flyers. Many are good for only one or two weeks, which is not enough for the trip to the base in Rota, Spain.

In particular, at this time of the year, we need coupons for batteries, baking products, candy and holiday foods.

If you do not use your newspaper coupons, could you please leave them in an envelope at the library in Narrowsburg for us?

You’ll know that your coupons will be put to good use by the military families who are serving our country.

Fran Kerwin
Beach Lake, PA

Shelve FIMFO till all questions are answered

I truly hope the Camp FIMFO plan does not go through.

This is not conducive to the physical and mental health of our community.

This is detrimental to the environment.

This should be shelved until all questions have been answered.

I hope it is not passed to the benefit of a few.

Florence Simancas
Barryville, NY

More than pundit blundery

There is a certain satisfaction that arises whenever the popular “intelligentsia” embarrasses itself. Whether it is pollsters, self-styled pundits on the left or the right, supposed political visionaries, rich and powerful spokesmen for the monied elite, or just your know-it-all smartass friends or relatives who have seamlessly inserted a whole foot “into a mouth.” Their awkward discomfort is always “eye candy” for the rest of us, who unfortunately wasted our time listening to them.

But the recent “red wave” embarrassment likely was more than just an innocent blunder. Right-wing echo-chamber trolls understand the maxim that says that if you scream something enough times, you can have a dynamic effect on how people think. The former president, T®*μÞ, has been repeating an evidence-free incantation of “stop the steal” for more than two years, and I am sure you have noticed that a few people (tens of millions) picked up on it (likely less, lately). 

Many years ago, Marshall McLuhan famously claimed, “The medium is the message.” Beyond McLuhan, this “tsunami red wave” is the latest flashing psycho probe delivered on the most powerful medium ever. Likely, it may have been pushed with the calculated intent that “reality can be shaped to become whatever we decide to make it.” However, you will recall that previously, under scrutiny from the courts, the former president discovered that a priori declaring election fraud (hundreds of times) did not get the intended result. In our most recent election, neither did the insistent red-wave drumbeat make much of a splash on the reality of the outcome. 

Sadly, the mainstream media all but echoed what was a politically motivated call from the start. The nefarious intent of the right wing trumped any real balanced political analysis. As evidenced by the wide political spectrum of voter indignation at the Supreme Court’s power grab in the Dobbs case, there was data contrary to the “red wave” theory that was all but ignored.  

As demonstrated in Kansas and in other special elections and ballot measures, voters, especially women, were moved to act. In the only real poll that matters, on Election Day, they largely ignored the false prophets trying to convince them to surrender women’s personal liberty to politicians. In so doing, the American electorate punished many in the political party that promoted what is fundamentally a religiously based, conservative and ultimately dystopian vision of women’s health care future for America.

John Pace 
Honesdale, PA

Your voice, your vote mattered

Although write-in votes were not tallied for each write-in candidate, ballots have been counted to determine who will represent the 139th House District of the PA General Assembly. Good luck to Representative-elect Joe Adams, and congratulations to all the candidates in this critical election.

The PA House in the General Assembly may have changed to Democratic majority after over a decade of Republican control; however, the final ballots are yet to be counted. I hope that you are celebrating your participation in this election, because your voice mattered!

After all signs have been gathered, bills paid, and elected officials sworn in, governing will begin. I am disappointed that I will not hold the office to serve you in the PA House and am in awe, proud of my campaign, and so grateful for your support.

May you enjoy the holidays!

Marian Keegan
Lackawaxen Township, PA

Candidates can’t dodge responsibility

Running for president is not a Get Out of Jail Free card. It doesn’t work like that. If it did, all the crooks would be candidates. 

Bruce Ferguson
Callicoon Center, NY